Let Thy Name Be Courage
by Hero McAllen
Summary: (Part 5 of A Goddess Three) Link sits up alone at night, plagued by his daunting future. While worrying about the future, he thinks back on his past.


Disclaimer: I don't own Zelda. *Does Frodo's hobbit dance because she gets bored with these disclaimers*. :)  
  
Let Thy Name Be Courage  
  
One year, four months, three days  
  
Link pulled the blankets over him more tightly in a vain attempt to avoid getting out of bed for more. He tossed and turned, burying his face in his pillow, trying to get comfortable. This wasn't the first night of sleep he had lost within the past few weeks. Anyone carrying the knowledge of his or her friends seemingly unavoidable death would lose sleep. Link rolled over and tried propping his arm under the pillow this time. It wasn't long before he switched positions to the other side. After about an hour he figured it was hopeless and went down to his little kitchen for some tea, hoping that would put him to sleep. It never worked before, but that didn't stop him. He walked down the stairs, half asleep and lit the oil lamp he had on the table. Thank Nayru that he had enough common sense to add an extra bedroom on to this little house of his he thought. Without it, I would be as cramped as hell.  
  
The Sages had to return back to the Sacred Realm in about four days or so and Link was sorry to see them leave again. So was everybody. He liked knowing once again that Saria was right next door, or King Harkinian was now happy again. Link felt as though they were being cheated somehow with their leaving. He rummaged around his drawers until he found the jar of tea, looking in and seeing it empty. He sighed impatiently and thought for a moment going over to Saria's at this time of night to see if she had any. No, he didn't want to bother her. Link poured himself a glass of water and sat grumpily down at the table.  
  
"Link, you need some sleep," he said to himself, taking a sip of water. "You need it bad."  
  
He sat there for a time, just thinking before he went back up to bed and attempted sleep again. Loraefin's birthday was in a few days and Link had already picked out her gift for her. It was a beautiful leather bound copy of 'Yesterday's Sky', a book she had shown particular interest in at her short stay at the Castle. Zelda had been kind enough to show them around the library and this was the first book Loraefin pulled out. He had even managed to wrap it and that in itself he was proud of. Maybe if he pretended like nothing was going to happen, she would stay safe and alive, but that was a foolish thought. So many things that had happened in his life he thought as he stared at the flame on the table. He had been forced to leave the only home he knew for ten years and start a long and physically challenging quest that in reality would take him seven years to complete. The physical portion was never the problem though it was the emotional. In the blink of an eye he had gone from ten to seventeen and then back again, expecting to live out those lost years as though nothing had happened. Link stopped wondering along time ago whether he was really eighteen now or twenty-five by his mental standards. He started to think back to when Zelda had sent him back to his original time all those years ago, what had happened, what he had seen. It all came flooding back like the water in Lake Hylia.  
  
  
  
"Link, I know you're not happy here," Saria spoke forlornly perched once again on her stump in the Sacred Forest Meadow. "I can sense it, something isn't right."  
  
Link stared up at the old ruins of the Forest Temple that loomed above him. He remembered fighting the evil Ganondorf's phantom and awakening the Forest Sage in there. He remembered the smells, the sound of his boots on the stone, the unearthly quietness if you just stood still to listen. But that hadn't happened yet apparently, but then why was he left with the memory? Here he was again; a year after his return, eleven years old, living in Kokiri where he was at the continuous mercy of Mido's teasing him about his fairy abandoning him. It was true Navi had left him (for the time being), but abandoned him, no. She had to leave him for a time because she knew he was Hylian and she knew that as long as she was around he would never fit in outside of Kokiri. She left so he could have a chance at a normal life. Though after Ganondorf's defeat, there was no point in pretending his life was normal. He saw Navi every so often and he friendship was comforting to have over the years. Thanks be to Farore that Mido had not picked up on Link's growing body while all of the other Kokiri stayed the same. He couldn't stay here much longer he thought. Was this how he was supposed to live out that seven years that he had missed the first time?  
  
"Link!" Saria said again, trying to get his attention.  
  
"What?" He finally answered, breaking out of his reverie.  
  
"Nice to have you back Link, I was about to start thinking that the forest spirits had taken away your brain."  
  
"Very funny Sar," he grinned. "What were you saying?" Saria got that forlorn glaze on her face again.  
  
"I was saying how I can tell that you're not happy here Link."  
  
"What do you mean not happy? Of course I am." Said Link, sitting next to her on the old tree stump.  
  
"No, no you're not," Saria shook her head, "don't try and cover it up." Link paused for a moment and then hopped off the tree trunk.  
  
"Whatever Saria."  
  
"Link, did you ever think that when you left the forest…" She stopped suddenly as if to find the words. "Did you ever think that maybe you weren't meant to come back?"  
  
He left Kokiri a few months later. Ganondorf had taken over the thrown on Hyrule by now and the strains of his ruler ship were starting to show. Five more years Link thought, only five more years. The fact that he and the Sages had beaten Ganondorf in the future did not mean it obliterated him from the past. Here, his threat was still very real. Zelda and Impa had fled the Castle and King Harkinian had been put into an eternal sleep with the Evil King's dark powers. Princess Zelda had sent Link back just before his past self opened the Door of Time and pulled out the Master Sword, starting the strange journey all over again in a loop. Zelda was smart by doing this though for now in seven years time, the Hero of Time would emerge from the Sacred Realm and defeat Ganondorf. Only problem was now Link had to live out Ganondorf's reign while his past self took over his old role. Balancing the effects of time travel was not something that could be solved quickly.  
  
In these seven years, Link had to be sure to keep all relationships fairly distant and short might he add if he wanted the timeline to work out the same. Malon must not recognize him; neither could Ruto or Darunia, almost everybody he knew had to be cut off from his life. Link figured that he had another three years before drastic changes had to be made in his lifestyle. Not that trying to live through Ganondorf's tyranny wasn't a change in lifestyle as it was. Link cut off almost all of his hair and shed his Kokiri clothing to try and change as much of his physical appearance as possible. The first five years of Ganondorf's occupation was hard, but not unlivable. For the first few years, Ganondorf didn't pay much attention to the people in Hyrule, only in tracking down Princess Zelda to try and obtain her piece of the Triforce. Lucky for Link, Ganondorf was under the impression that the holder of the Triforce of Courage had disappeared in the Sacred Realm and was gone. He never thought to look for it right under his nose.  
  
In the following three years after Link's departure from Kokiri, he took it upon himself to go to school since he missed out on it the first time. Nothing was more important than a good education he heard someone say once. Hyrule Market Town had been destroyed at the beginning of Ganondorf's power and everything from there seemed to migrate over to Kakariko, where Link went to school. Misa, the young boy Link had met in the graveyard, and Susan, the girl who Link had first seem chasing the cucoo around the market, went to school with him as well. Misa's family was kind enough to let Link stay with them for as long as he wished.  
  
"What do you guys want to do later after this?" Misa leaned over in his chair whispering to Susan.  
  
"Misa! Face forward!" Their teacher said sharply.  
  
"We could go watch the carpenters build the new building," Susan giggled as Misa quickly turned forward.  
  
"Susan! Please pay attention!"  
  
"What about you Link?" Susan whispered to him. "It'll be more fun that trying to do Ms. K's homework for awhile."  
  
"We could always go and play tricks on Dampe. Remember last time when we dumped that basket of rocks on his house and he thought there had been a landslide?!" Misa grinned, trying to suppress his laughter.  
  
Every so often, the year round school would give some vacation time and when this happened Link worked at Lon Lon Ranch to earn some money, which most of it he paid to Misa's family in return for his housing and food. They never wanted to take it, but he insisted. Talon gave him his own little room to stay in and on the weekends Link went back to stay with Misa and his family. Not as exciting as being the Hero of Time, but it was a busy life and he enjoyed it. His friendship with Malon blossomed into the strong relationship they had now here. In the summer they worked side by side, from sun up to sundown everyday feeding the livestock and taking care of the ranch.  
  
"I never got around to asking you what happened to your fairy Link," Malon asked one day while in their routine of feeding the horses. "I thought all kids from the forest had one."  
  
"I'm not in the forest anymore," said Link hotly. Malon did not push further because she could sense it was a tender subject.  
  
By the time he was fifteen, Link had grown restless waiting for the end of Ganondorf. He couldn't sit by and wait for his past self to awaken any longer; he had to do something with himself. So at the age of fifteen, Link said goodbye to his friends in Kakariko for a time after he made the decision to join the resistance that was forming against Ganondorf. They all wished him luck and said their good byes, Misa's mother hugging once more in a motherly fashion. She had become quite attached to Link, and he would often come back to visit them when everything returned too normal again. Which reminded Link, he was going over to dinner with them next week.  
  
"Are you sure this is what you want to do Link?" Malon studied his face.  
  
"Yes, this is something I have to do."  
  
"But you could be killed, did you ever think of that?" She retorted.  
  
"Ganondorf needs to be stopped Malon, and I need to go."  
  
Not long after Link left to join the resistance, Ingo took over the ranch and kicked Talon out.  
  
The Resistance was a small group of men, even some women, who had organized themselves to try and do all they could to help bring an end to Ganondorf's leader ship. They ambushed Ganondorf's Monblins and they sabotaged everything of his they could get their hands on. A shipment of bows here, waylaying a caravan of supplies to Ganondorf's troops, stealing horses in the middle of the night, anything, as long as they were doing something. Link's advance swordsmanship got them out of many tough scrapes. So in reality, Link thought to himself, he had fought Ganondorf two times really instead of one.  
  
Not only was Link doing his share to stop Ganondorf (well, we all know he'll do more), he met Rook for the first time. Rook had heard about Hyrule's plight and he and his older brother Scott came from Adrean to help. The three watched out for each other the next two years, helping each other and learning from one another. Link admired Rook and his brother for risking their lives to come here just as they respected and admired him.  
  
"Aye, what wouldn't I give to be home with a nice pretty lass on my lap instead of sitting in this filthy hole waitin' for some daft Molblin," Rook muttered to himself.  
  
"What lass in her right mind would want you?" Scott laughed, readjusting his knees below him.  
  
"Like yer a catch," Rook grinned back. "Aye Link, you have anybody at home?"  
  
"Nope, never have either, I'm a free man," Link joked around, eyes still scanning up the trail diligently.  
  
"Relax Link, those dumb brutes will come soon enough," Scott said, leaning back and putting his hands behind his head.  
  
"What? You mean the Molblins or women?" Rook laughed.  
  
When it was finally time for the Hero of Time to emerge, Link decided that he should get out of dodge. He said goodbye to the people who needed it and headed off to the other side of Death Mountain to the little country of Vertamae while the other him finally brought an end to the evil Ganondorf. It was a beautiful little country full of rich forests and lakes with such thick fog in the morning that you could cut through it. He liked it here, but he missed Hyrule. It was his home, his country, the land that he had bridged the laws of time to save. When it was time, he packed up the few items he brought and headed home, to Hyrule.  
  
The country was in an uproar of celebration, and in the center of it, was Link, finally getting the thanks he deserved and had missed out on the first time around. The people of Hyrule did not know the difference between him and the Link that just left seven years into the past. Now the cycle was complete and life went on.  
  
  
  
"It's been an interesting ride," Link said under his breath to himself, taking the last gulp of water, "almost too interesting." With this he slowly turned off the lamp and trudged back up the stairs to his little room, in his little house, in the small and peaceful village of Kokiri, where it all started.  
  
AN: Ah, little sketchy, but this isn't really important to the major story line, I just wanted to explain what Link was up to over all those years. 


End file.
